Ten arbitrary and somewhat random favorites (click to view at Amazon):
and Trainspotting #2Honorable Mentions:
Scott Timberg at the LA Times has a cool overview of a favorite of mine, James Ellroy, covering the difficulties the writer has had with Hollywood…and vice versa. While LA Confidential did well, at least with the critics, others of Ellroy’s works just haven’t translated.
Only the most die-hard Ellroy fan resented that the film resembled his labyrinthine novel — with its dozens of characters, thick historical context and overlapping subplots — only slightly. It’s considered one of the finest films of the ’90s and one of the greatest film noirs since the genre’s 1950s heyday.
But since then, when it comes to movies, it’s been more crying than laughing for Ellroy fans.
Read the article at “Hollywood’s James Ellroy enigma”
A new film opens a week from today (April 11th), for the first time with a screenplay by Ellroy himself: Street Kings. Very interesting cast: Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, Common, and The Game.
See also: James Ellroy at IMDB.
While I’m at it planning movie marathons for next year, March 31, 1999, was the release date of The Matrix, thus 2009 will be its 10th anniversary. I think I’ll have to do a mini-marathon and watch the trilogy on 3/31/09, sort of an appetizer for the big honkin’ AvP marathon in May.
From user eddiemalone on Flickr, a photo of quite possibly the coolest stencil ever. :)
Fresh off last year’s successful Star Wars Day movie marathon, it occurred to us that an Alien vs Predator universe marathon would also be awesome. Between the Alien movies, Predator movies, and the crossovers, there are eight films, so it would require either an earlier start, or a multi-day commitment.
The first question is what order to watch them in:
by movie release date…
or by timeline…
* Contains flashbacks to early visits by the Predators, but the main story line places it here.
(See also Alien and Predator Timeline.)
My inclination, as it was for the Star Wars marathon, is the latter: by timeline.
The next question is when to hold the marathon. Again, with Star Wars, I declared Star Wars Day as May 25th, which in 2007 was the 30th anniversary of the release of the original film.
Coincidentally, May 25th, 2009, will mark the 30th anniversary of the release of Alien, the first picture in the AvP universe. This gives me enough time to amass all the DVDs. Actually, I think I have the first three Alienses already, so I’m ahead of the game…unless I decide to get the Alien Quadriology set. ;)
So, more to come.
